Another Likely Candidate Emerges For County Executive Race

Suffern Mayor Dagan Lacorte is exploring a run for the county executive’s post. The Democrat announced his exploratory campaign for Rockland county executive on Twitter and YouTube last week and is airing his first television ad tonight.  His campaign website  is up and running.

Lacorte joins fellow Democrat County Legislator Ilan Schoenberger and Republican Legislator Ed Day in the race.  Both Schoenberger and Day will make formal announcements in early December.  Lacorte said he expects to make a formal declaration in the near future but does not have a specific date.

“Ultimately as we get more interest, I will move to making an official announcement," he said on Monday. “I’m definitely serious about this and things are going really well.”

Lacorte has served as village mayor since 2009.  Prior to that he was a village trustee for four years with three of them as deputy mayor. Lacorte, who considers himself an ‘Andrew Cuomo Democrat’,” described county government as “broken” and said the people who are running it have broken it and have caused Rockland to go broke.  

Lacorte noted his village’s budget for 2013 is under the two percent state property tax cap and that he has not had a raise in his government positions in seven years. He said the village’s senior citizen recreation programs were expanded and parking increased in the business district.

Lacorte outlined a four-point plan of critical issues to be addressed, which he said would be explained in detail as the campaign progresses. The program included the reduction of the 60 county departments, boards and commissions by 25 percent through consolidation and reinvention of county government, increasing funding for Rockland Community College, and protecting Rockland's quality of life. Lacorte spoke about eliminating wasteful earmarks, specifically cases where money is discretionarily given out to non-profits for programs and services without a request for bids. Lacorte, 38, said the county must confirm its money is being well spent.

Lacorte, who is a partner in a wealth management company, said Rockland needs a CEO and he has the necessary skill set. Lacorte’s campaign committee, Solutions 2013, reserved two minutes of airtime at 5:58 p.m. for a campaign ad tonight on Cablevision’s Channel 12.

“I look forward to discussing my record of effective, bipartisan leadership and independence with voters across the county in the coming weeks,” Lacorte said.